Indictments in Plastic Pallet Thefts

Plastic pallets and crates hold anything from cans of soda to loaves of bread on their way to a store near you. Now, authorities say too many pallets are moving into the hands of criminals.

"In the middle of the night there are a lot of people taking plastic from the back of businesses. They take it to a recycler. The recycler pays them for the plastic," said Jim Rood of J.R. Investigative Services.

It's then shredded and the pallets are trucked to a manufacturer.

Prince George's County has indicted five people for $440,000 worth of thefts of plastic.

"I want to emphasize that this is not a situation where we had college kids grabbing crates to carry their books. This is a multi-million dollar problem," said State's Attorney Glenn Ivey.

Coca-Cola pays $35 for each large plastic pallet it uses. When these items are stolen, everybody pays.

"When consumers at the grocery store aisle buying the loaf of bread, buying the soda, buying the milk, they pay that price. It's all built in," said Robb MacKie of the American Bakers Association.

Maryland's Cloverland Farms Dairy spends a million dollars a year repurchasing milk crates.

"If we send out 60,000, we get 40,000 back. 20,000 disappear into thin air," said Robert Glass of Cloverland.

Two of the people indicted, Ofer Tsauch and Myron Nelson, are affiliated with G.E.G. Recycling in Landover.

In a phone conversation Tsauch said G.E.G. has cooperated with authorities and is doing nothing wrong. Tsauch told Fox5: "We are not looking for trouble. We are looking to do business."